That’s a quote by Tim Kern. He was a coffee guru at Starbucks Coffee. A long-time employee who was caught a the lay-off sweep a couple of years ago.

The artwork is from a notebook Starbucks handed out to participants in a leadership conference. The notebook was sprinkled with quotes provided by partners (employees).

Tim’s point… Garbage in equals garbage out. You can have the highest quality, best machine in the world, but if you fill it with bad coffee – you’re going to get a bad product.

This is a challenge that happens with problem solving. The best people, using the best process, in the right place won’t made headway when they’re addressing the wrong problem.

Sometimes we don’t spend enough time identifying the root cause of a problem. As a result, we do a really good job fixing the wrong thing. It ends up wasting time, money, and effort. Worse – thinking the problem is indeed fixed (a false sense of security) – the root problem has a chance to deteriorate further.

The return for ensuring you’re addressing the root cause is worth the investment.

Tips to Find Root Cause

Here are a few articles I’ve posted in the past that will prevent you from properly solving the wrong problem.